Members were advised of the changes made in the processing of Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) to improve its delivery time, and to agree further changes planned for 2013-14.

The approval and payment of Disabled Facilities Grants was mandatory and formed one of the Welsh Government's national performance indicators, PSR/002.

Since 2008 the Council had acknowledged the time to deliver a DFG, from the first point of contact when client requested an adaptation through to the delivery of the works, had to be improved. Officer time and financial resources had been invested in the service to secure improvements and this had been reflected in the Council’s performance improving over the last few years as detailed below;

Performance Indicator

Delivery of Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGS)

Service Perf.

2009/

10

Perf.

2010/

11

Perf.

2011/

12

Perf.

2012/13

Perf. Wales

2012/13

& VOG 2013/14 target

Private Sector Renewal

PSR/002: The average number of calendar days taken to deliver a DFG

802

569.

398

346

326

Private Sector Renewal

PSR/009a: The average number of calendar days taken to deliver a DFG for children and

young people

N/A

1,139

647.

454

377

(Actual 510 )

Private Sector Renewal

PSR/009b: The average number of calendar days taken to deliver a DFG for adults

N/A

544

392

337

321

The improvement in the delivery of DFG's had been noted by the Welsh Government in their published document 'Local Authority Service Performance 2011-12'. The publication, stated that the Vale of Glamorgan had seen three years of decreases in completion times and that the Vale of Glamorgan had seen the largest increase in delivery improvement.

This was also reflected in the Council's position in the delivery time of DFG's compared to other authorities. In 2009/10 the Council was 22nd with the longest delivery time across Wales. However, in 2010/11 our rating had increased to 20th and in 2011/12 the Council was 17th, supporting the data that our service performance is improving both in terms of our delivery time and in comparison to other authorities.

Over the last 6 years officers and elected members had worked, using best practice examples, to improve the council's delivery time for DFGs. The service had also been reviewed by Internal and external Audit. Appendix 1 attached to the report outlined the completed Action Plan that dealt with previous actions and audit recommendations.

The report outlined that a further action plan had been developed which should ensure nobody was on the OT waiting list for more than 2 weeks and again this would make significant improvements to the Council's delivery time for DFGs. The action plan for this 2013/14 was attached at Appendix 4 to the report.

(2) T H A T a copy of the Disabled Facilities Grants Delivery Improvements report be submitted to the Scrutiny Committees Corporate Resources, Social Care and Health, and Housing and Public Protection for information purposes.

(3) T H A T a detailed report on Disabled Facilities Grants be brought to Cabinet on a quarterly basis.

(4) T H A T staff be thanked for all their hard work on the Disabled Facilities Grants Delivery Improvements.

Reasons for decisions

(1) To obtain approval of the proposed next steps for the improvement in the delivery times for DFGs.

(2) To keep relevant scrutiny committees informed of progress in the delivery of the DFG service.